Working in Tech after med school

[deleted1095841]

Do you (or anyone you know) work in Big Tech (or a tech startup) after finishing med school?
How did you go about doing that?
And did you have to do residency first?
And does it matter what field of residency?

And finally, how does the compensation compare to being an attending at an academic med center? To private practice?

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[collegestud2013]

Very uncommon straight out of med school or during residency. It would raise the question of why you spent all that time and money to go to med school in the first place when most jobs in tech just need a Bachelor's degree. I suppose it's possible if you had a change of interest later on, or did very poorly in terms of academics in med school to the point where you have a hard time matching into residency a competitive specialty.

I have seen a few do non-clinical careers after med school. A MD/PhD grad who went onto work for pharmaceutical start-up that was commercializing research he worked on as a grad student. A few I have heard who quit in the middle of IM or Surgery residency to work in finance or consulting. You would need to have a unique skillset that med school itself doesn't teach you, and have the connections. Even starting pay in jobs like tech, finance, consulting will have very wide range but would maybe comparable to a junior attending in a lower paying specialty.